One World, One Sky

Standing on the Morehead Planetarium Sundial

This past Saturday we embarked on our longest adventure as a family of four to date.  I have been wanting to take Edmund to Morehead Planetarium for a while now, but because he is afraid of things that are dark and loud, I had been a little reluctant.  From what I could gather, the only show offered for young children still might have been a little "too scary" for Edmund.  Then a couple of months ago Aunt Alison informed us that a Sesame Street show was coming to the planetarium.  I did some research and decided this was about as tame as shows come, and decided Edmund could handle it.  I made some very loose plans to take Edmund on May 26th, but as you know, Evie arrived on May 25th.  Her arrival nixed that plan, but Edmund didn't care as he was still very apprehensive about going.  As Evie approached 4 weeks I started talking about the planetarium again.  Edmund still wasn't sure.  Then something timely happened--Edmund received a Curious George space DVD from Netflix in the mail.  In between the cartoon segments there are segments with real children learning things that are relative to the previous show's message.  In this case the children go to a planetarium.  Edmund got to see what it would be like and declared he'd like to go that very day.  It was settled.  We packed up the car and headed to Morehead to see "One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure."

We arrived at the planetarium with a bit of time to spare.  While waiting for the show to start, Edmund explored the gift shop.  It was his dream.  All his favorites in one location--dinosaurs, space, science, what more could a boy ask for?  We've made a note that we can do one stop Christmas shopping there this year.  After much debate, Steven decided to stay out and walk Evie around.  This was special as I hadn't had a mommy-son outing since Evie entered our lives.  Finally the doors opened.  Edmund and I went into the dome theater and took a seat near an exit in case we needed to make a break for it.  As we waited for the show to start, trivia questions about space and the planets played on the dome.  Edmund knew the answer to many of the questions and recognized several of the planets by sight.  I must admit even I am unable to do that.

Posing at the Old Well

At last a man came forward and let us know the show would be starting and gave us instructions.  The lights went down.  I waited for panic, but none came.  Surprisingly the theater didn't get as dark as I expected, and when the dome got slightly darker, Big Bird very kindly let us know what was about to happen.  During the show Big Bird, Elmo, and their new friend from China. Hu Hu Zhu, taught us about the sun, various constellations, and even traveled to the moon using their imaginations. We learned that despite being in different parts of the world, people, and "monsters," all live under the same sky.  Edmund answered the questions posed by Big Bird and his pals and seemed to have a great time.  When the lights came up the man running the show said people could leave or stay to see some more projections of constellations.  Edmund declared he was ready to leave, but even so, the experience had gone off without a hitch.


After viewing some of the small exhibits in the basement of the planetarium we decided to extend our outing.  I must mention that at this point Edmund received his favorite treat, astronaut ice cream.  I'd be lying if I said we didn't use this as a bit of incentive to get through the show without tears.  After the ice cream, Edmund and Steven walked around campus while I fed Evie.  Edmund knew just where he wanted to go, and according to Steven, led him to the Old Well without any help.  This is impressive, since we haven't walked on campus in about a year and the Old Well was visible when they started off.  I'm still amazed by Edmund's sense of direction since I get lost walking across the street.  When we met back up we made plans to finish our outing with a lunch on Franklin Street.  Even though it is a little tougher to coordinate these kind of outings with two kids, we pulled it off, and claim this adventure as a success.